Old God’s Time Summary

Tom Kettle is a retired detective who, for the past nine months, has been enjoying a life of peace and solitude in the seaside town of Dalkey, Ireland, where he lives in a flat owned by the wealthy but unassuming Mr. Tomelty. Tom spends most of his time reading books and watching the sea. Although his entire family—his wife June, daughter Winnie, and son Joe—passed away some years earlier, he still gets “visits” from Winnie; it is left ambiguous whether she is a genuine ghost or a fragment of Tom’s memory, which has begun to fail in his old age.

One day, Detectives Wilson and O’Casey, two younger officers from Tom’s former station in Dublin, visit Tom. Tom welcomes them in, after which point the two detectives ask for his help in a cold case: the murder of a priest. The two detectives attempt to pass the case file to Tom, but Tom is deeply distressed by it and refuses it. Wilson and O’Casey spend the night and leave early next morning, at which point Tom is so perturbed by their visit that he thinks of it all day and even considers suicide until his old friend and former boss, Chief Superintendent Fleming, visits and convinces Tom to help.

As Tom prepares himself to participate in the investigation, he spends a great deal of time reminiscing about his past—especially his wife June, who, like Tom himself, grew up in an orphanage run by strict and sometimes abusive nuns and priests. The reemergence of the case also prompts Tom to spend more time out and about in Dalkey, which leads to him running into Mr. Tomelty and spending an evening in the landlord’s flat with his wife Eliza. Tom is surprised how put-together Mr. Tomelty looks that night, since he is usually dressed in tattered rags as he works on the garden outside his building. Later, Tom thinks of Joe, who emigrated to Albuquerque to work as a doctor; and Winnie, who graduated law school and aspired to be a barrister. Most significantly, Tom recalls June’s greatest confession to him: that, from ages six to 12, she was violently raped by one Father Thaddeus Matthews.

A few days later, Tom travels to Dublin to visit the detectives. Returning to the city brings up a variety of memories for him, particularly the 1974 bombing of Dublin, which Tom was a first responder to and suffered significant trauma from witnessing. He enters the station, which is in a large old building, and meets Fleming, Wilson, O’Casey, and a new detective named Maureen Scally—only to wake up and realize this was a dream. Later, in reality, Tom goes to Fleming’s office to discuss the case with him, Wilson, and O’Casey. This discussion reveals that the murder victim was Thaddeus Matthews himself. Tom and his late partner Billy Drury were investigating Matthews and Father Joseph Byrne for child sexual abuse, only for the case to be covered up by the former chief superintendent as well as the archbishop. During this discussion, Fleming also confesses that Wilson took Tom’s toothbrush to compare his DNA with blood found on the cliffside where Matthews was murdered. Tom urges Wilson and O’Casey to pursue the case no matter what, particularly since Joseph Byrne is still alive and can face consequences.

After returning home, Tom spots a little girl pushing a boy, who he believes to be his neighbor’s son, into the sea. He runs to alert the boy’s mother, Ms. McNulty, only for him to reassure her that her son, Jesse, is already in bed. Tom asks about her daughter, at which point she tells him the girl is dead. She then proceeds to confide in him about how she’s hiding from her husband, who so severely raped her daughter that the girl died of internal injuries. Her husband never faced consequences for it. Ms. McNulty’s father stays with her but does not know the whole truth, so Tom promises he’ll keep an eye out for suspicious people and do what he can to protect her. That night, Tom is haunted by various images of child abuse, and he recalls the moment when June realized with horror that Tom was investigating her rapist. The next day, Fleming comes to tell Tom that the DNA test wasn’t a match, but that Byrne has testified about seeing a police officer that matches Tom’s description at the cliffs shortly before Matthews was killed. He asks Tom to provide a blood sample. That night, Tom recalls how, after discovering Tom’s investigation of Matthews, June insisted on going to see him at his house.

The next morning, Tom decides to comply with Fleming’s request and travels to the station to give a blood sample. On the way home, he encounters Wilson, who asks him straight-out if he killed Matthews and emotionally says he doesn’t want Tom to go down for murdering a monster. Tom, however, urges him to pursue the truth. Upon returning home, Tom visits his neighbor Ronnie McGillicuddy, a cellist with a hobby of shooting cormorants on the sea rocks. He lets Tom, a former military sniper, look through the scope of his rifle, but Tom is too uncomfortable to shoot. Even so, he enjoys his burgeoning friendship with Ronnie.

Later, Tom recalls the truth: that June convinced him to follow the two priests to the cliffside, where June stabbed Matthews and pushed him off the cliff. Tom knows he might go down for the crime, but he has no regrets, as he acted out of love for June. While reminiscing, he sees Mr. Tomelty wearing his ragged clothes in the garden and asks him about Mrs. Tomelty, only for Mr. Tomelty to tell him that she died many years ago. Soon after, Ms. McNulty visits him to show him a blank letter from her husband, which she interprets as a threat against her and Jesse.

In the summer, Wilson and O’Casey come to tell Tom that his blood was not a match. Tom begins to reminisce on the memories of his family’s deaths. First, June died by suicide via self-immolation. This led Winnie to develop a heroin addiction that ultimately killed her, and Joe emigrated to the United States, where he was murdered by a grieving father who blamed Joe for his son’s death. Although these memories are terrible, Tom feels freedom in recalling them and embracing both the beautiful and tragic parts of his life.

In his flat, Tom hears a commotion and sees Jesse being abducted by his father. He pursues the two into town, where Ms. McNulty catches up to them and is knocked out by her husband. Mr. McNulty then pulls Jesse to the harbor, where he rows him out into the water on a boat. Tom rushes to Ronnie’s flat and uses his rifle to shoot Mr. McNulty dead, then waits until he sees reinforcements show up to save Jesse. He then swims out into the channel, feeling at peace with his life. Finally, he returns to his flat and lies in bed, where June’s ghost appears at his side. He touches her hand and feels he knows everything about her.